This is a blog about the board games my son Tyler and I play, and humorous stories when applicable. We will both give reviews from our perspectives. Spoiler alert: I mostly lose, no matter what the game is.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

79 A.D. Looks Good on You

In the hobby of boardgaming, when we really like a game, we "Pimp it out". We upgrade components, or bits, or any number of things.

The thing I most like to upgrade are the bags, and the place I use is Artscow.com, They have many, many bags, created by the board game community. For example, when I wanted to upgrade Roll for the Galaxy, I went from a plain black bag to a bag with art from the game on it.

One game that I really wanted a bag upgrade for a while ago was the game I just reviewed, The Downfall of Pompeii. It came with a plain white bag, but I wanted to make something with a volcano on it. Something more spectacular. So, Artscow just happened to be having a bag sale, one bag for $5. The big sale is generally ten bags for $20, but I only wanted the one, so I figured that was a good price. When Artscow has sales, it takes a little while to get the merchandise, but I was in no hurry.

Well about a month passed, and my order shipped. After about another week, I had a package on the table, but it was... Large. Why would they send a little bag in such a big package? I opened it, and much to my dismay, they had sent me the wrong size bag, or more than likely, I had clicked on the wrong coupon link. Instead of being sent a "token" bag, I had been sent a "drawstring" bag.

For sizing purposes, I had Roll for the Galaxy's giant black bag nearby already, so I've used it to illustrate the size of the bag I received. As you can see, I could put all the tokens in it for drawing lava for the game, maybe even twenty games. I could have the world's largest Downfall of Pompeii game, with multiple boards, and it would not fill this bag.

So, this year when I go to Origins, and you see a fairly tall man with a erupting volcano bag on his back, that's me.